Exasperated Right Rejects Birther Speech at Tea Party Convention

Joseph Farah, editor of right-wing-hinterland-hub World Net Daily, delivered a barnstorming Friday night address at the Tea Party convention. He urged Americans to demand Obama's birth certificate, and said that proof of Jesus's birth is more ironclad than the president's:

I have a dream. And my dream is that If Barack Obama even
seeks re-election as president in 2012 that he won't be able to go to
any city, any town, any hamlet in America without seeing signs that ask
'Where's the Birth Certificate?

Farah's ideological cousins have quickly moved to disown him. As David Weigel reports, Andrew Breitbart--who gave a media-blasting address Saturday morning--snapped that Farah's speech was "narcissistic," and "a losing issue." Conservative bloggers are leaping to Breitbart's side, arguing that birther rhetoric is not the heart of the Tea Party movement, but a hindrance to its credibility.

We Have Better Anti-Obama Arguments, writes Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. "Not only is it not a winning issue, it will hang like an albatross
around the necks of conservatives who tacitly or expressly link
themselves to it."

Unrepresentative of Tea Partiers, writes Jillian Bandes at Town Hall. "Don't take the confrontation as representative
of your average Tea Party Convention attendee's feelings on any of the
issues they discuss, namely birtherism, media coverage, niche
conservative infighting."

Plays Into Media's Hands, writes Dan Riehl at Riehl World View. "Well, it's not hard to guess what the first media question to Palin will be ... Some fricking morons just
have to give the media precisely what they want, I guess."

A Blow to a Respectable Movement, says Jonathan H. Kupistky at FrumForum. "It's a silly line of attack against Obama. ... Message for the cameras: This is a room full of conspiracy theorists."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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Benjamin Carlson is a Beijing correspondent for Agence France-Presse.He has written for Rolling Stone, the New Republic, and Esquire.